A significant majority of Poland’s public hospitals plan new investments urged by the Health Ministry and new funds made available, a report by PMR market research company shows.

The Polish Ministry of Health requires hospitals to adjust their sanitary and technical conditions to the ministerial instructions, according to the report entitled „Public hospitals market in Poland 2014. Investment plans and comparative analysis by voivodship between 2014 and 2016”.

Furthermore, new funds has been recently made available within the range of Operational Program ‘Infrastructure and Environment’, causing a growing interest in investment planning.

Among the possible investment projects the report cites renovation, supply of additional hospital equipment, opening of a new ward or a laboratory, construction of a new hospital building/reconstruction of a hospital, thermoregulation system development, or development of various hospital facilities e.g. a landing, a boiler room, a sewage treatment unit etc. “It is much more than what hospitals indicated during a research carried two years ago”, PMR said.

One third of public hospitals plan to open a new ward, the report says. In the case of already existing hospitals, as well as new hospital premises, units that are most frequently planned to open include geriatric, rehabilitation and psychiatric wards.

Despite increasing cancer incidence in the society, the number of established oncology wards has declined. According to the previous PMR survey covering investment plans for 2012-2014, as much as 14% of all hospitals intended to establish oncology wards, while now such plans for are revealed by some 7% of Polish public hospitals.
This results from the segment saturation with this specialization, PMR says.

Due to the fact that an operating theatre is needed in the wards of various types, the result for this specialization has remained unchanged (11% in 2012, 12% in 2014).
Source: PMR